A faithful reader of this column sent me some disturbing pictures last week. Joe C was driving on the Merritt Parkway in Norwalk when he saw a FedEx tractor-trailer moving southbound. His passenger snapped these pictures:
This is so wrong — a serious accident waiting to happen. Trucks are, with few exceptions, not allowed on the Parkway — and with good reason. All of the bridges on the Merritt Parkway, originally built to a minimum standard of eleven feet at the abutments, are too low for big trucks.
Inge Doris Lorenz (Riedelsberger), the beloved wife of Jürgen Hans Lorenz, died in Fort Myers, Florida on July 7, 2022. She was 80. They were married for 54 years. Inge was born in 1942 in Fuchshöhe, East Prussia. Her family moved westward and settled in Osnabrück, Germany where Inge completed her education and began work as a paralegal.
It should have been done by now. 2018 was the expected completion date of the new railroad tunnels under the Hudson River, first proposed in 2009. At that time the $9 billion project was the biggest infrastructure project in the country. Now it may finally happen. Why do rail tunnels from New York’s Penn Station to New Jersey matter to us here in Connecticut?
With deepest sorrow we announce that our son, Garrett William Finley, of Portland, Maine, died on June 15, 2022. He was 37. Garrett was born Nov. 4, 1984 in New York City and spent most of his childhood in Darien. He graduated from Oxford Academy in Westbrook, where he developed his love of photography and continued his love of music.
Hundreds of runners and others, along with music, games, sponsor booths, a silent auction and entertainment will all be part of the 42nd Annual Darien Road Race and Family Fun Day on Sunday, Sept. 18. The event will start at 9 a.m. that day at Pear Tree Point Beach, and race registration is now open. — an announcement from The Community Fund of Darien
You can register here. The race attracts more than 600 people and more than 450 runners of all ages participate.
Here’s Realtor Deirdre McGovern’s report on Darien and Rowayton real estate from July 14 to 21, 2022:
THIS WEEK’S DARIEN HIGHLIGHTS
8 New-To-Market Listings3 Price Reductions2 Accepted Offers11 Closed Sales8 Open Houses
THIS WEEK’S ROWAYTON HIGHLIGHTS
1 New-To-Market Listing2 Price Reductions3 Accepted Offers2 Closed Sales1 Open House
New Listings
30 Lake Drive, Darien [PICTURED] | $799,0002216 Boston Post Road, Darien | $950,00018 Camp Ave., Darien | $950,0002 Red Barn Road, Darien | $1,725,00016 Phillips Lane, Darien | $2,350,00025 Delafield Island Road, Darien | $2,575,00096 Leroy Ave., Darien | $2,799,00088 Pear Tree Point Road, Darien | $4,500,0002 Harbor Bluff Lane, Rowayton | $4,740,000
Price Reductions
26 D Fairfield Ave., Darien | $535,000 / $519,00039 Fitch Ave., Darien | $1,725,000 / $1,700,0002 Gardiner St., Darien | $2,850,000 / $2,700,0007 Drum Road, Rowayton | $1,600,000 / $1,499,0002 Nylked Terrace, Rowayton | $1,800,000 / $1,725,000
Accepted Offers
29 Country Club Road, Darien | $1,350,00041 Dubois St., Darien | $1,649,00011 Hunt St., Rowayton | $1,195,0001 Highland Ave., Rowayton | $1,200,00096 Witch Lane, Rowayton | $1,690,000
Title Passed / Sold
51 Hale Lane, Darien | $625,000 / $630,000437 Hoyt St., Darien | $739,000 / $815,0003 Fairfield Ave., Darien | $979,000 / $1,025,00027 Fitch Ave., Darien | $1,150,000 / $1,326,00010 Bailey Ave., Darien | $1,300,000 / $1,406,250213 West Ave., Darien | $1,385,000 / $1,412,50013 Brookside Drive, Darien | $1,350,000 / $1,458,00042 Hamilton Lane, Darien | $1,845,000 / $1,855,00043 Blueberry Lane, Darien | $2,649,000 / $2,525,0002 Tanglewood Trail, Darien | $2,995,000 / $3,425,00010 Hillsley Road, Darien | $4,395,000 / $4,200,00085 Highland Ave., Rowayton | $1,895,000 / $1,750,00042 Pine Point Road, Rowayton | $2,895,000 / $2,895,000
Open Houses
2 Red Barn Road, Darien | Saturday | 1 to 3 p.m.30 Lake Drive, Darien [PICTURED] | Saturday & Sunday | 12 noon to 3 p.m.62 Raymond St., Darien | Sunday | 1 to 3 p.m.96 Leroy Ave., Darien | Sunday | 1 to 4 p.m.11 Hope Drive, Darien | Sunday | 2 to 4 p.m.2 Gardiner St., Darien | Sunday | 2 to 4 p.m.2216 Boston Post Road, Darien | Sunday | 12 noon to 2 p.m.2 Nylked Terrace, Rowayton | Sunday | 1 to 3 p.m.
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Deirdre McGovern is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker who has called Darien home for more than 25 years. She has been involved in many local organizations. She can be reached at 203-554-0897 or deirdre.mcgovern@cbrealty.com. More information here.
Yes, there are new trains on the Waterbury branch — and three new express trains from New Haven, but overall our rail service in Connecticut is still too slow. Why? Governor Lamont and CDOT Commissioner Guilietti ballyhooed their new train PR last week as if they’d solved the commuting problem. They have not. Still, kudos to Commuter Council Chair and Waterbury branch rider Jim Gildea for his tireless efforts to build up service on that branch line.
Judith (Judy) Pittman Tibbetts, a nearly 70-year resident of Darien, has recently passed. Born in Nebraska to the late Beatrice and Alfred Pittman, and raised in Chicago and Boston, Judy moved to Darien in the early 1950s after college (Principia) and marriage. She and her husband, Paul, and their two sons, Alfred and John, lived in a home they built in Delafield Island. They were also founding members of the Christian Science Church in Darien on the corner of the Post Road and Salt Box Lane. While her children were still quite young, Judy discovered a knack for selling real estate, arranging two sales before deciding to go into the business.
Louise “Scottie” Peebles Winter of Norwalk passed away peacefully on July 7. She was 94. Born in Stamford in January 1928 to the late Charles and Agnes Macdonald Peebles, who had recently immigrated from their native Scotland, Louise was raised in Stamford with her brother John and sister Millicent, where she graduated Stamford High School in 1945. In 1949, she earned her bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate at Danbury State Teachers College, now Western Connecticut State University. Upon graduation, Louise taught elementary school in Darien for many years inclusive of a break while her children were young, through her retirement in 1992.
It is with great sadness and much love that the family of Pia DeLuca, 82, announces her peaceful passing on July 9, 2022. Pia was born on Jan. 24, 1940 to the late Augusto and Lucia Rizzi D’Urso in Scauri, a picturesque seaside village in Minturno, Italy. Pia immigrated to America in 1958 on the ocean liner Cristoforo Colombo. She reunited with her family on Spruce Street on Stamford’s West Side.
Deirdre McGovern is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker who has called Darien home for more than 25 years. She has been involved in many local organizations. She can be reached at 203-554-0897 or deirdre.mcgovern@cbrealty.com. More information here.
When we get on an airplane we buckle up, read the safety card and are given a demonstration on the oxygen masks and emergency exits. Those things can save lives should something go wrong. But when we get on a train, either Metro-North or Amtrak, we settle into our seat and zone out. We assume we’re safe. That’s what passengers on an Amtrak train in Missouri thought this past week… until their train’s locomotive hit a dump truck on an unguarded private grade crossing and derailed.
A Lyft driver purposefully crashed his car into a tree on West Avenue, near Holmes Avenue, on Monday night, he told police, because it was the only way he could stop his passenger from stabbing him yet again with a knife. Darien police gave this account of the incident, which the driver survived after being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries from several stab wounds:
The car was crashed shortly before 10:37 p.m., when police received a report about it. The driver told police that he picked up a customer in Stamford and was driving him to Norwalk. Police said the incident’s only connection to Darien was that the vehicle happened to be driving through town at the time. After the crash, the suspect fled with the victim’s cell phone.
Kids riding bikes, scooters, wagons and non-motorized vehicles, often with their parents providing the push/pull power, will start parading from Darien High School at 10:30 a.m., Monday, July 4. (What will the kids be doing? Mostly providing the charm. Whether they look bored, sad, angry or, more often, curious, happy and delighted, they’ll be exuding oodles of charm. It’s what kids do, particularly if they’re too young to do much mischief.
Deirdre McGovern is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker who has called Darien home for more than 25 years. She has been involved in many local organizations. She can be reached at 203-554-0897 or deirdre.mcgovern@cbrealty.com.
